Experts believe the first 'cyber-killing' has already happened without police realising and soon hackers will be able to massacre dozens of people with the click of a button by crashing cars, lorries and trains, or by turning off vital power supplies.

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Donal MacIntyre, an investigative journalist and visiting professor of criminology at Birmingham City University, said: “Technology has changed the way we live, it is going to change the way people die too.

“I have no doubt that the future of murder is the cyber serial killer. Suddenly these killers will have the power of life and death over tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people.”

The cyber attack on the NHS in May proved how easily hackers could put lives at risk.

The ransomware bug, which also hit delivery giant FedEx, crippled the NHS computer and telephone system, demanding money before staff could log on and access vital patient records. Some hospitals and GP surgeries were forced to turn away patients and revert to pen and paper.

Hackers will soon have an even more technology to target. Last week the government announced plans to trial 'driverless lorries' on UK motorways next year to cut congestion. Conveys of up to three lorries will speed up and brake at the same time, controlled by a single driver in the lead vehicle.

But Donal warned cyber serial killers could try to hack that new technology to control the driverless lorries and cause carnage on the country's busiest roads. They could also target cars with onboard computers that communicate with the outside world or trains and railway signals.

Donal, who is writing an academic paper on the subject called Wireless Homicide with his colleague, Professor Liz Yardley, said: “What happens when a cyber-geek who feels alienated from the world around them realises they can derail the 5.34 train from Tokyo to Osaki and 250 people might lose their lives?

“Now they don't have to buy a gun, dye their hair orange, and walk into a cinema blasting to kill 16 people. They can go on a kill spree from their bedroom and they are untraceable. The classic cyber killer will be able to turn off the brakes of a car, or open a dam to flood a city, or turn off electricity supply to hospitals, any number of things. It is a terrifying prospect.”

It may sound like the plot from a Hollywood thriller, like Die Hard 4.0, but hackers have already demonstrated an alarming ability to control potentially deadly machinery.

Five years ago white hat hackers, security experts hired to hack websites and security systems to test their weakness, proved they could take control of in-car computers. Renowned New Zealand security expert Barnaby Jack proved he could hijack a computerised insulin pump, which could be used to deliver a fatal dose of medication.

He also claimed he could hack into a pacemaker, like the one worn by former US vice president Dick Cheney has fitted, echoing a deadly storyline in the popular US drama Homeland.

However, Jack died before he could show police how he did it.

Global policing network Interpol has warned it is only a matter of time before the first cyber murder, with US security firm IID previously predicting the first case by the end of 2014. Donal said: “Just because no case has been identified and prosecuted so far, doesn't mean it hasn't happened. We know this kind of wireless homicide would be very hard to trace.

Cyber serial killers could control driverless cars (Image: Brand X)

The dark web has already been used to terrifying effect (Image: Digital Vision)

“If we have seen it in the movies, I assure you it is happening in real life.

“Almost anyone could do it. You don't have to be an expert to pick up hacking tools online and in this digital age, those give you the basic tools to commit murder.”

There have already been numerous cases of murderers and paedophiles using Internet chat rooms, dating websites, and social media to find and ensnare victims. Schoolgirl Kayleigh Haywood, 15, was groomed online by sexual predator Luke Harlow, 28, who contacted her out of the blue on Facebook and sent her 2,600 messages in just two weeks. He persuaded her to go to his home in Ibstock, Leicestershire, without telling her parents and plied her with alcohol to sexually abuse her.

Things took an even darker turn when his neighbour Stephen Beadman , 29, got involved. Beadman raped Kayleigh then marched her across farmland and killed her in November 2015.

Salford mum Clare Wood was killed by her obsessive ex-boyfriend George Appleton in 2009. Clare, 36, met Appleton online and had no idea of his history of violence against previous partners. And Met PC Gordon Semple was strangled and dissolved in a bath of acid by web-designer turned crystal meth addict Stefano Brizzi at a flat in South London after they met on gay dating app Grindr in April 2016.

Brizzi even grated Semple's bones and ate some with chopsticks and bit into one of his ribs.

Donal, who explores these cases and the dangers posed by online predators for his new series Click For Murder, said: “There has to be a responsibility for dating websites to engage more, to ask for more information and cross reference with each other.

"Google and other online businesses cannot just stand back and say, 'I am not responsible, we just provide a blank page for people to use.”

Some killers have already used the internet top help them kill (Image: Getty Images)

Donal MacIntyre has investigated all sorts of crime (Image: Getty)

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“At the moment we are at that gestational stage of Internet murder where killers meet their victims online, then commit their appalling crimes in the real world. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Some killers have already used the Internet and technology to do far more than meet their victims.

One chilling examples is fantasist Sammy Almarhi, a US divorcee who masqueraded as a millionaire to meet unsuspecting British victim Nadine Aburas on dating website Muslim Match in 2013. Nadine, from Cardiff, travelled to New York to meet Almarhi in September 2014 but tried to severe all links with him on her return after he raped her and tried to strangle her.

Refusing to relinquish his grip on his victim, Almarhi hacked into her mobile phone to spy on her text messages. This kind of spyware can even be used to listen to calls and secretly take photographs.

The software can be bought online for as little as £35 and downloaded in a matter of minutes.

Almarhi, now 46, used it to stalk Nadine, 28, bombard her with abusive messages, and manipulate her into meeting him at a hotel in Cardiff Bay where he murdered her on New Year's Eve 2014.

Donal said: “In the same way that humans and other animals adapt to exploit a food source, criminals will evolve to take advantage of the technology available to them. The police are doing what they can, but they are starved of resources and they are playing catch up.

"These cyber predators have such a big head start and they are constantly finding new ways of staying one step ahead of the law. There is an apocalyptic vision of where this could end up.”

Donal MacIntyre, Click For Murder, is on CBS Reality on Mondays at midnight.